'Lost' recap: So is he or isn't he?

ABCBen knew that Sayid was a killer by nature. But did Ben expect Sayid to kill him?

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- I'd like to start off the blog by giving credit to BBJoeyG, a frequent poster who last week predicted that Sayid would kill Ben.

Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to wait until next week to find out if the gunshot was fatal.

Other observations/questions:

1. There really wasn't much to this episode (in terms of questions) until the last few minutes. The biggest question remains is Ben dead? What are your thoughts? Personally, I don't think he is because it would change the show so radically that I don't even think the writers would know what to do -- although I have total faith in them if they decide to kill him off.

2. If Ben is dead, however, how will that change the course of what happens now? Ms. Hawking said the results would be "unpredictable" if not all of the Oceanic 6 members returned to the island. Could this be what she was referring to? When Frank crashed 316 on the island, Rousseau's message was playing in the background -- why? Because 815 never crashed on the island and shut the message off in the first place? Hmmm.

3. But if Ben is dead, then how did the Oceanic 6 -- and the rest of the Losties -- find their way back to the '70s? And how would Sayid even know who Ben was to kill him? There may be an alternate history/timeline that we don't know about yet.

4. Was Ben in on getting Sayid on Flight 316? Ilana said she didn't know who Ben was, but it's just a little too convenient that he wound up on that flight. Maybe Widmore sent Ilana? Either way, at least we now know why Sayid was there -- in handcuffs.

6. I happened to like witch doctor/torturer Oldham. And his introduction gave us the best line of the night (which also happened to be the title of the episode): "He's our you!"

7. Jack, Kate and Hurley seem "lost" now that they are back on the island, like they don't know what they're supposed to do to fix things. Why haven't they sought help from Daniel? He's the only guy with any understanding of how this all works -- and possibly how they can all get home -- and yet no one's bothered to look for him?

8. I know the time skipping is confusing a lot of people (eg: Why didn't Rousseau recognize Jin when Flight 815 crashed if she had met him in the past?). My explanation: Even though we are seeing things out of order, time-wise, we are seeing the events in the order in which they occur. Rousseau didn't recognize Jin when 815 crashed because they hadn't met in the past yet; older Ben didn't recognize the Losties when 815 crashed because they hadn't met in the '70s yet, etc. The only hole in my theory: When Charlotte was dying, she told Daniel that she met a man on the island when she was younger who told her never to return, and that the man was Daniel. Why was she able to recognize Daniel when no one else has been able to? A slip-up on the part of the writers? Maybe ... or maybe there's something to it. Your thoughts?